Spirit Airlines kicks San Diegans off a flight for speaking Russian
May 25, 2013, 8:59 pm
#1
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Spirit Airlines kicks San Diegans off a flight for speaking Russian
"An airline employee told them that the stewardesses were intimidated by their speaking a different language."
Watch out.... Aeroflot will soon begin kicking English speakers off their planes in retaliation.
http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_...aking-Russian/
Watch out.... Aeroflot will soon begin kicking English speakers off their planes in retaliation.
http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_...aking-Russian/
May 25, 2013, 11:54 pm
#3
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Though I'd never fly Spirit due to their business practices, the minimal press I can find has nothing but claims from the pax and their attorney, and a denial of the claim that they were warned about their behavior.
I suspect the airline's side of the story will be very different and will wait to hear that before developing an opinion.
I suspect the airline's side of the story will be very different and will wait to hear that before developing an opinion.
May 26, 2013, 7:25 am
#4
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KGTV reports that the employee warned the Bitmans and their friends over the loudspeaker for talking too loudly, but they say they never heard such a warning.
OTOH Spirit doesn't have a good customer relations image, so who knows?
Jun 2, 2013, 7:31 am
#5
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The article that Jaymar posted was heavily slanted, but there were enough details in it to prevent me from automatically taking the pax's side.
1) It was a group of six people heading to Las Vegas for an anniversary party.
2) The article says, "The two said the group was chatting about the party in their regular voices - and only slightly louder when someone was speaking across the aisle - when an airline worker walked up to the Russian natives and told them they had to leave." Um, you don't have to talk "slightly louder" to be heard across the aisle of an aircraft.
So, I have a sneaking suspicion that when we hear the cabin crew's side of the story, it will be something like, "The six passengers were intoxicated and rowdy, yelling to each other and disturbing the entire plane. The fact that they were yelling in Russian was irrelevant to the decision to remove them from the flight. They were removed because of their intoxicated and rowdy state, which disturbed all of the other passengers."
But I'll reserve judgement till I hear the airline's side of the story. And in particular, I also want to hear other pax on the flight telling their side.
1) It was a group of six people heading to Las Vegas for an anniversary party.
2) The article says, "The two said the group was chatting about the party in their regular voices - and only slightly louder when someone was speaking across the aisle - when an airline worker walked up to the Russian natives and told them they had to leave." Um, you don't have to talk "slightly louder" to be heard across the aisle of an aircraft.
So, I have a sneaking suspicion that when we hear the cabin crew's side of the story, it will be something like, "The six passengers were intoxicated and rowdy, yelling to each other and disturbing the entire plane. The fact that they were yelling in Russian was irrelevant to the decision to remove them from the flight. They were removed because of their intoxicated and rowdy state, which disturbed all of the other passengers."
But I'll reserve judgement till I hear the airline's side of the story. And in particular, I also want to hear other pax on the flight telling their side.
Jun 2, 2013, 11:15 am
#6
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The article that Jaymar posted was heavily slanted, but there were enough details in it to prevent me from automatically taking the pax's side.
1) It was a group of six people heading to Las Vegas for an anniversary party.
2) The article says, "The two said the group was chatting about the party in their regular voices - and only slightly louder when someone was speaking across the aisle - when an airline worker walked up to the Russian natives and told them they had to leave." Um, you don't have to talk "slightly louder" to be heard across the aisle of an aircraft.
So, I have a sneaking suspicion that when we hear the cabin crew's side of the story, it will be something like, "The six passengers were intoxicated and rowdy, yelling to each other and disturbing the entire plane. The fact that they were yelling in Russian was irrelevant to the decision to remove them from the flight. They were removed because of their intoxicated and rowdy state, which disturbed all of the other passengers."
But I'll reserve judgement till I hear the airline's side of the story. And in particular, I also want to hear other pax on the flight telling their side.
1) It was a group of six people heading to Las Vegas for an anniversary party.
2) The article says, "The two said the group was chatting about the party in their regular voices - and only slightly louder when someone was speaking across the aisle - when an airline worker walked up to the Russian natives and told them they had to leave." Um, you don't have to talk "slightly louder" to be heard across the aisle of an aircraft.
So, I have a sneaking suspicion that when we hear the cabin crew's side of the story, it will be something like, "The six passengers were intoxicated and rowdy, yelling to each other and disturbing the entire plane. The fact that they were yelling in Russian was irrelevant to the decision to remove them from the flight. They were removed because of their intoxicated and rowdy state, which disturbed all of the other passengers."
But I'll reserve judgement till I hear the airline's side of the story. And in particular, I also want to hear other pax on the flight telling their side.
Jun 3, 2013, 7:33 pm
#7
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If that were the case, that's what the airline would've said. That's a perfectly legitimate reason to remove passengers.
The fact that they gave the much more embarrassing (and illegal) reason that they did implies that what they said is exactly what happened.
The fact that they gave the much more embarrassing (and illegal) reason that they did implies that what they said is exactly what happened.
Jun 3, 2013, 10:15 pm
#8
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But are we hearing what they said or what the passenger said they said?
Jun 3, 2013, 10:18 pm
#9
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(Surely you're not assuming that the passengers' explanation is fact, correct?)
Last edited by CPRich; Jun 4, 2013 at 9:19 am
Jun 5, 2013, 1:17 pm
#10
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Per http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...elsewhere.html will move this to the appropriate airline forum while leaving a 30-day re-direct in Travel News
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